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'Thousands of Companies Are Spying On You' (cnn.com)
Security guru Bruce Schneier warns that "thousands of companies" are spying on us and manipulating us for profit. An anonymous reader quotes his article on CNN:
Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff calls it "surveillance capitalism." And as creepy as Facebook is turning out to be, the entire industry is far creepier. It has existed in secret far too long, and it's up to lawmakers to force these companies into the public spotlight, where we can all decide if this is how we want society to operate and -- if not -- what to do about it...
Surveillance capitalism drives much of the internet. It's behind most of the "free" services, and many of the paid ones as well. Its goal is psychological manipulation, in the form of personalized advertising to persuade you to buy something or do something, like vote for a candidate. And while the individualized profile-driven manipulation exposed by Cambridge Analytica feels abhorrent, it's really no different from what every company wants in the end... Surveillance capitalism is deeply embedded in our increasingly computerized society, and if the extent of it came to light there would be broad demands for limits and regulation. But because this industry can largely operate in secret, only occasionally exposed after a data breach or investigative report, we remain mostly ignorant of its reach...
Regulation is the only answer.The first step to any regulation is transparency. Who has our data? Is it accurate? What are they doing with it? Who are they selling it to? How are they securing it? Can we delete it...? The market can put pressure on these companies to reduce their spying on us, but it can only do that if we force the industry out of its secret shadows.
The article also insists that "None of this is new," pointing out that companies like Facebook and Google offer their free services in exchange for your data.
But he also notes that there are now already 2,500 to 4,000 data brokers just in the U.S., including Equifax.
Surveillance capitalism drives much of the internet. It's behind most of the "free" services, and many of the paid ones as well. Its goal is psychological manipulation, in the form of personalized advertising to persuade you to buy something or do something, like vote for a candidate. And while the individualized profile-driven manipulation exposed by Cambridge Analytica feels abhorrent, it's really no different from what every company wants in the end... Surveillance capitalism is deeply embedded in our increasingly computerized society, and if the extent of it came to light there would be broad demands for limits and regulation. But because this industry can largely operate in secret, only occasionally exposed after a data breach or investigative report, we remain mostly ignorant of its reach...
Regulation is the only answer.The first step to any regulation is transparency. Who has our data? Is it accurate? What are they doing with it? Who are they selling it to? How are they securing it? Can we delete it...? The market can put pressure on these companies to reduce their spying on us, but it can only do that if we force the industry out of its secret shadows.
The article also insists that "None of this is new," pointing out that companies like Facebook and Google offer their free services in exchange for your data.
But he also notes that there are now already 2,500 to 4,000 data brokers just in the U.S., including Equifax.
We know you're trying to muddy the waters and use the "everybody does it" rationalization. "Thousands of companies" aren't using search and social networking and Android monopoly power to spy on us like you guys are. It's only you doing that.
"Thousand of companies" also don't have PR problems due to arrogant, dismissive management. That's a Google and Facebook problem.
"Thousands of companies" haven't lost the trust of their audience by trying to impose Silicon Valley "values" on them. That's a Google and Facebook problem.
It's just like casinos. If everyone was winning money in them, they wouldn't be able to afford to keep the lights on. If you're using something a company provides to you without paying for it, then it's really you who's the product.
Advertising? You really think this is about selling you trash?
This is the New World Order's wet dream.
Having any and all information to hang over any challengers stupid enough to think Justice and Liberty for all.
It's over folks. And you can thank the dumb bastards who cry "tin foil hat conspiracy theory" at any and all suggestions that "our" leaders aren't serving their constituents and their nation.
Good bye... it hasn't been fun and it will get much much worse before things improve. 1984 was written in 1948... and the author was very late to the game even then.
No, you bought the things you wanted, but what you wanted was guided by the advertising. Everyone thinks ads don't effect them, but industry pours billions in. Why? Because sales numbers show it does effect them.
I remember noticing it was 5:00 on the fifth once, and pulling into a local subway, I noticed the song in the back of my head "five, five dollar footling" from the ads, the 5:00 made me think of them and decide I wanted a sub. I insure with Geico because the lizard ads. It's just laziness, when we want something, we query the info in our brains to think of where we can get it, and the ads are there.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
Find an OS that does not have spying on users as part of every release.
Get a good VPN and put that in a router. So every network connection is not from your IP and ISP.
Support a good AV brand that finds a lot of malware and nation funded spyware.
Put no script and use other methods to protect a browser.
Look into who is creating and funding the browser. Are they pro privacy?
Dont use social media.
Dont let social media get your cell phone details.
Don't connect a "smart" TV to the internet. Use a stand alone device just for streaming.
Dont bring in a networked microphone and camera product from a company that sells ads.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
In which browser? Firefox's new NoScript add-on is a joke, and Chrome was always hostile towards it.
The technology graveyard is full of zombies (alvinrod)
WHAT WE SAID: We need common sense gun laws.
WHAT MOST OF YOU MEANT BUT WOULDN'T SAY SO NOT TO ALARM PEOPLE: We need an Australian-style gun ban.
There are *already* "common sense gun laws" on the books. These laws *should have prevented* most if not all of the recent mass-shootings IF they had been *enforced* properly!
You don't need *new* gun laws, just for-deity's-sake enforce the ones we already have! What the hell makes anyone think that creating more laws will help when the laws already in place that should have stopped these homicidal lunatics were not enforced? And when these new laws you want are not enforced either, and more people die? What then? More new laws? There's a term for believing that repeating the same actions and behaviors over and over will somehow result in a different outcome. Fix enforcement, don't just jump to infringing a civil right.
Fact: US Gun-Related Homicide is down over %50 over the last 25 years.
Fact: US Gun Violence Victimization is down over %75 over the last 25 years.
These facts according to official US government statistics.
We have the "if it bleeds it leads" 24-hour-news-cycle pathology amplified by the internet social media echo chambers and being used by politicians and ideologue firebrands to flame fear and anger in order to drive the anti-gun agenda when the facts do not support that gun violence is growing, but in fact dramatically the opposite.
And there's the US mental health crisis. The majority of the recent mass killers had already been under mental health treatment and/or medication, and not just for minor, temporary conditions, yet still purchased a gun. The homeless shelters all across the US are filled with the mentally ill. That is not being addressed by anybody in power on either side.
If you want guns and other dangerous things out of the hands of the mentally ill who commit horrible acts, then don't allow the mentally ill the opportunity by kicking them out of the institutions that once kept them and us safe. Fix the institutions.
We've had guns for a very, very long time and yet we are only having these problems relatively quite recently. The way we handle (or don't, actually) the mentally ill and the fostering of Post-Modern thought which says all moral codes or no moral codes are equally valid and there is no objective right and wrong, foster a culture and society where life has little value and almost nothing is objectively "wrong".
It's no wonder there are mass murders and chaos in such a broken society with such a sick culture.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.